I Went to Alt! (And Caught the Plague)

No doubt by now you’ve already read countless posts from other bloggers speaking about everything they learned, how awesome the other bloggers are, and how inspired they left. And you know what? It’s all true. This year marked my fourth year attending and speaking at Altitude Design Summit (affectionately Alt) and I’m still not tired of the feelings I leave with every January. It’s basically impossible to not bond with these people who are on your wavelength, who get your obsession with analytics and tolerate you anyway.

Most attendees arrived in Salt Lake City sometime Wednesday. Past years I’ve had punishing early morning flights, but this time around lucked out and didn’t even have to depart Oklahoma City until after one o’clock. I had a lovely traveling partner in Rachel Shingleton of Pencil Shavings fame, and we arrived in SLC shortly before everyone started heading off to their Wednesday evening sponsored dinners.

I has signed up for a lovely meal with Joss & Main, a members-only site that curates 3-day long shopping events, at Sapa Sushi Bar & Grill. I ended up having such a great time and so many quality conversations that I forgot to snap even one photo! That has to be a record.

Thursday morning’s sessions started bright and early at 9am, and in the main hallway I immediately noticed what was one of my favorite new additions to Alt this year – three sheet metal boards ripe with magnets for showing off business cards! Business cards are the equivalent of gold at this conference, and the boards were the perfect way to showcase everyone’s creativity and long hours. They also unintentionally gave me recognition of someone before ever meeting them face to face. I can’t recall how many times I exchanged cards with someone only to say how I’d hoped I would meet them after spotting their card first.

Thursday night brought with it the much anticipated Clue party. We had all been instructed to dress in the color of Mrs. White, Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, or Mr. Green. I thought for sure one color would be dominant but nope, the room was a rainbow of vibrant color! All of the board game’s rooms were represented, sectioned off and identified in the classic Clue font and projected in light from the ceiling amidst the apropos furniture setting.

I loved all of the little touches that went into the planning, from the huge array of colored flower arrangements to the artistic takes on each weapon, to the colored lights in the rear of the room! (This is obviously the end of the night, these tables were packed!)

This is the lone good photo of me from the entire conference – as Miss Scarlet! – because the next morning I woke up with a raw throat and aching ears. I’d been sick for most of January and traveling lots, so I don’t know why I was surprised. But I was. Guess I should have taken more note of all the hand sanitizer being handed out and not put that plastic bear mask on in the Bing photobooth. But speaking of Bing…

… they had a great footprint on the entirety of Alt, in a very genuine way. Their support of creativity and voice were palpable, starting with the amazing lounge they put together around projects nominated by the attendees. (And from what I hear, people ended up winning and taking each one home!)

Land of Nod also threw one heck of a tea party, complete with a full-size plastic swan boat (you can see a photo of me and my roommate, Jaime Derringer of Design Milk, canoodling in it on Instagram!) and plenty of polka dots and stripes.

Three cheers for Bing, Land of Nod, and all the sponsors of Alt for helping it reach its full potential!

We had the opportunity to see three fantastic keynotes, one Thursday and two Friday. First up was Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics and former longtime editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. To be honest Chris’s talk was a little over my head, but I’m looking forward to reading the copy of his book – Makers: The New Industrial Revolution – we were all gifted at lunch.

Friday’s lunch keynote resonated most, no doubt because it was one of my long-standing graphic design crushes – Stefan Sagmeister of Sagmeister & Walsh. His talk focused on the exploration of happiness through his projects The Happy Film (which finally has backing) and The Happy Show. We had the chance to preview twelve blissful moments of the movie, which will be at film shows this coming year. Needless to say, totally amazing.

The closing keynote was the lovely Katie Sokolov of Color Me Katieand street art fame. I have to confess that I didn’t make it to this one, cold meds had me taking a short nap in my room instead. But this is what I missed out on…

Friday evening brought with it the much loved Mini Parties! Each sponsored room has its own distinctive decor and vibe, I think my favorite was Go Mighty‘s valentine-themed crush party with plenty of red, balloons, and candy. I also had a great time visiting with Better Homes and Gardens and Hayneedle!

Oh, the trends! Alt wouldn’t be Alt if the ladies (and handful of gents) didn’t bring their A-game. I was excited to see the latest (colored denim, mixed patterns, fascinators) and the reliables (topknots, big glasses, totes).

If you couldn’t make it to the conference you should definitely look into it for 2014! In the meantime, here are a few links to reviews of some of the panels. I’ll continue to update the list as new ones come out!

12 Comments

Thanks so much for sharing my link! Sad we didn’t get to meet, but hopefully I can drive over to OKC for a blogger meetup soon. Hilarious that I met more OK bloggers at Alt than I have since I moved to Tulsa in May!

And I would just like to state, for the record, that I’ve been sporting black-rim glasses for 12 years now. Hooray for being ahead of the trend!

Kelly, what a delight to hear you speak at Alt Summit last month! Your insight and advice were helpful … especially when using Pinterest to promote my own work! You’re an absolute peach. Best wishes for 2013.